Client: Town of Cary, NC

Location: Cary, NC, United States

Completion date: 2012

Artwork budget: $153,000

Project Team

Artist

Sonya Ishii

Artist

Norie Sato

Artist

Jim Hirschfield

Overview

SCHOOL SPIRITS uses historical images from the building's past when it served as the community's high school. The images are laminated into the large panes that extend 30 feet in the air from the lower to upper levels. Also seen are the ceramic frit historical images created for the glass classroom door behind the glass wall and as projected light within the vomitorium of the theater.

Goals

School Spirits was collaborative effort by Jim Hirschfield, Sonya Ishii, Norie Sato and the architectural team from Clearscapes. Knowing that a new stairway in the renovated space would need a supportive structural wall, the artists suggested that the wall become an artistic component within the space.

Process

This was a collaboration between artists Jim Hirschfield, Sonya Ishii, Norie Sato and the architectural team from Clearscapes. The artist team spent considerable hours discussing the intent of the space and coming up with site specific concepts that the artists could design around (e.g., turning a necessary structure for the stairway into an artwork.)